In which I perhaps overthink things.
Jun. 29th, 2013 06:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kd7sovAs some of you have probably heard, I'm attempting to cultivate a Sazed headvoice. This has mostly involved reading and rereading all the Mistborn books over and over.
This post is not about Sazed, per se. But it is about Kelsier, and some things Sazed says about Kelsier, and about Vin, and it is inspired byadiva_calandia's last post. (Though don't worry; there are no Hannibal spoilers here.)
A few hours after first meeting Sazed, Vin asks him a question, which sets up a callback at the very end of the book. She asks whether Kelsier is a good man.
Sazed's answer is "A very good man, Mistress. One of the best I've known."
I don't think he is, though. Oh, he may be one of the best people Sazed's known to that point, but "best" and "good" are different things. (And if he is, that says some kind of sad things about Sazed's past.)
We get a few Kelsier viewpoints, and one thing that really stands out is his bigotry. He hates the Lord Ruler, and the nobility, and very specifically feels that anyone who chooses to work for either has forfeited their right to not get killed by Kelsier. Their reasons don't matter; if they're there, he feels free to kill them, though he won't seek them out the way he will a nobleman.
Of course, he's not all bad. Among other things, he gets Vin to stop being paranoid and mistrustful. It is, in fact, the first thing that came to mind when Adiva started talking about father-daughter/mentor-mentee relationships. And so I started thinking.
The conclusion I've come to is that, though Kelsier is not a good man, he was very definitely the right man for the circumstances. Oh, there are plenty of better men around, but if you replaced Kelsier with, say, second-half!Elend or Dalinar Kholin or Raoden... I don't think Vin would have turned out as well as she does. Perhaps they are in some ways too good for her - too much of a transition to take all at once.
Not sure that I have any conclusions to come to. I just wanted to get that out there.
This post is not about Sazed, per se. But it is about Kelsier, and some things Sazed says about Kelsier, and about Vin, and it is inspired by
adiva_calandia's last post. (Though don't worry; there are no Hannibal spoilers here.)A few hours after first meeting Sazed, Vin asks him a question, which sets up a callback at the very end of the book. She asks whether Kelsier is a good man.
Sazed's answer is "A very good man, Mistress. One of the best I've known."
I don't think he is, though. Oh, he may be one of the best people Sazed's known to that point, but "best" and "good" are different things. (And if he is, that says some kind of sad things about Sazed's past.)
We get a few Kelsier viewpoints, and one thing that really stands out is his bigotry. He hates the Lord Ruler, and the nobility, and very specifically feels that anyone who chooses to work for either has forfeited their right to not get killed by Kelsier. Their reasons don't matter; if they're there, he feels free to kill them, though he won't seek them out the way he will a nobleman.
Of course, he's not all bad. Among other things, he gets Vin to stop being paranoid and mistrustful. It is, in fact, the first thing that came to mind when Adiva started talking about father-daughter/mentor-mentee relationships. And so I started thinking.
The conclusion I've come to is that, though Kelsier is not a good man, he was very definitely the right man for the circumstances. Oh, there are plenty of better men around, but if you replaced Kelsier with, say, second-half!Elend or Dalinar Kholin or Raoden... I don't think Vin would have turned out as well as she does. Perhaps they are in some ways too good for her - too much of a transition to take all at once.
Not sure that I have any conclusions to come to. I just wanted to get that out there.
